"Barry White on helium"

That's how Michael J. Fox describes, on his autobiography, what he sounds like when he croons "oh baby, I love it when the drugs kick in" every time his Parkinson's medication takes effect.

Genius.

Yet another post about the US Elections

But not about the Presidential this time. Well, kind of. As I was watching CNN on November 4th, well into the night (in Europe) and with Obama's victory looking inevitable, the commentators were discussing the future of the Republican Party.

I was going to refer to what they said from memory, but I googled the keywords and came across the CNN Transcripts - which are amazing - so here goes the exact quote:

Gloria Borger: It's a different country and the danger, and Bill Bennett will - I'm sure will want to talk about this, for the Republican Party is becoming the monochromatic party, the party of older voters and the party of small America.

(...)

Bill Bennett: Let's resist the temptation to talk about Republican Party as just old white confederate man. It isn't. It's more than that. Indeed, the Republican Party has a lot of work to do. And let's resist talking about blacks and Hispanics, as if they're all progressive liberals, because they're not. But there are - yes, there are cultural divides in our society.

About the Republican Party being the party of old, white men and small America, all I can say is that's the idea we get on this side of the Atlantic. Whether or not it's true, I don't know. But I think Bennett is absolutely right on his other statement: blacks and Hispanics are not all progressive liberals. In fact, people who vote democrat, be they African-American, Hispanic, Caucasian, Asian, native Americans or whatever, are not necessarily progressive liberals - especially in this particular election. The Bush administration was so awful that many people ended up voting democrat because they didn't want to risk four more years of that. Others voted democrat because they felt inspired by Barack Obama, or charmed by the possibility of having a president who comes from an ethnic minority - thus proving that "in America anything is possible if you work hard for it". There are many reasons why people choose a party and/or a candidate over another. Bennett, biased as he may be, is right to say that many people who voted democrat are not politically liberal.

His words came to my mind as soon as I saw the result of that shameful proposition 8 in California, a state where Obama won in a landslide. And the same goes for Florida, where Obama had more than 4 million votes, but only 2.9 million people voted against the ban on gay marriage. Why is that? Obama's victory showed the world that America was taking a huge step towards making discrimination a thing of the past, and yet, millions of Americans across several states voted for propositions whose sole purpose was to make life harder for a group of people, with nothing in it for themselves. Again: why? "It’s almost like we’re the last group you can be openly bigoted about" - said Jeanne Rizzo, the C.E.O. of the Breast Cancer Fund, quoted by Judith Warner. Looks like she's right. Until when?

It's a new dawn, it's a new day

Something that really caught my attention on election night was McCain's concession speech. He was very gracious, showing no resentment, miles away from the arrogant, bitter old man who campaigned. The most significant part of his speech for me, even more so than the one about how important and historic it is that the president will now be an African-American, was this one:

That he managed to do so [win the election] by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving.

I agree. This is the most admirable thing about Obama and the reason why so much is expected from him now: the fact that he inspires people. He made people feel like he was talking directly to them, about their own problems, personally asking for their support so that he could help them solve those problems. He made people believe that they mattered, and that if they all worked together they could achieve great things. And they already did: Obama's election was the first great thing they achieved. This truly was the people's election, the people's choice, and Obama is the people's president.

And although he's not my president, because I'm not an American, I'm happy he was elected and I think he will do good for America and the world. Expectations are huge, and thus almost impossible to meet, but he seems honest and intelligent, which frankly is more than we can say about most politicians, and he has this way of motivating people, so I'm pretty confident.

And I feel privileged to be witnessing this moment. For the first time in modern history the most powerful person in the world is not of caucasian ethnicity. That has got to make everyone who has a sense of justice proud.

So now good luck Mr. Obama. The world will be watching (very, very literally). And good call on deciding to get your girls' puppy from a shelter. :)

Ok

I'm finally off to bed. And I know that tomorrow is going to be a better day!

O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!

So here I am, still awake at stupid o'clock, first to know who will be the next US president, and then to hear his victory speech. I genuinely feel I'm witnessing a historic moment.

The speech is starting.